Teaming up
by T.M.K.06
Summary: Spoilers for season 4! House chooses his new team. This is how I would like it to go. No longer oneshot, but marked complete since I really don't know if there will be more chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Teaming up**

_My take on how things could go with the hiring of a new team. Just thought to get it out before the next episode. _

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Henry Dobson was sitting at the desk in the diagnostics conference room. He was the only one in the room who didn't need to wonder about his immediate future: House had hired him. House had been right, this was not Henry's dream title, but it was his dream job. Even the "probation-time" (as he called it in his mind) had shown that. House listened to him just like he was one of the doctors – which was hardly at all. But on the other hand Henry was hired to handle House's mail and email: to answer the posts, refer patients to other doctors (the ones the requests ought to have gone to in the first place since even Henry could most of the time figure out what type of a problem the symptoms indicated). House had not hired him as a fellow, that was fair enough, but despite the almost demeaning title of a PA, Henry was in fact living almost his dream – and definitely having the more meaningful job he had wanted. He rather thought he would be content here, even though it did look like he had the oddest, weirdest, craziest boss one could have.

Not so with the other six people in the room with him. Six of the applicants were left. They were sitting at the table waiting for House to come in and tell them their fate. House had indicated that this was the last day; today he would tell them who was hired and who was not. Henry felt he could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. Everyone was eyeing each other with speculation in their eyes – some with almost hatred. Henry shook his head; he was not sure House's way of hiring people was the best if he wanted a working team. There had been backstabbing, tattling – and though he had said he didn't like tattlers he hadn't fired the biggest of them yet – and some rather ugly scenes. The twins hadn't gone quietly, though since they were gone that hardly mattered, but even so the scene hadn't exactly endeared House to the remaining candidates. In fact, nothing House had done had inspired feelings of liking, loyalty or admiration towards him. At least not at first glance. But "first glance" was often deceptive. House was nobody's fool and though he played to his own rules and ethics Henry suspected that those rules and ethics were rather carved in stone. If only anyone could find that stone!

Henry looked at the remaining candidates. He wasn't surprised to see number 13 there still – and he wasn't surprised that he still didn't know her name, though he suspected House knew not only her name but her shoe size as well. Amber, or number 24, was a surprise. Henry had expected her cut-throat ways and propensity to tattling to get her the boot even before the twins (who had rather cancelled each other out), but here she was. Why? Maybe because she had saved House's life, though Henry rather doubted that. House didn't seem like the kind of person who would give anyone credit for that. There had to be something about her that House found worth keeping around. At least until now. Jodi was a similar puzzle. Why would House want a Vet turned human doctor in his team? Sure there were some illnesses that affected both humans and animals, but as a specialist in infectious deceases surely House knew all of them himself? But again, House had to have his reasons for keeping number 32 still in the running. Those were the three ladies still in the running and none of them seemed to like each other. Of course, they didn't seem to like any of the men either, nor did the men seem to have any special rapport with each other or the women.

The three men still standing were the plastic surgeon, or number 39 or Chris, then the young Mormon Jeffery – number 18, and the epidemiologist Travis or something or number 37. Henry had been rather relieved to see number 6/9 to go: House didn't need anyone to egg him on; he was quite outrageous enough as he was. But Jeffrey was a bit of a surprise. Henry just hoped that if House was hiring Jeffrey, he could stand the jokes about black Mormons that House was bound to throw at him. Sensitivity to other people's beliefs was not House's strong suit – in fact anything even remotely smacking of political correctness was obviously an alien concept to House. Of course Henry was not the only one who would be a target of some choice jokes from House. He had already mocked Travis for being a bleeding heart due to his work with the "Doctors without borders", Chris had been told that plastic surgery was for shallow people who were afraid of "real" doctoring and Jodi had heard more than once that "horses weren't human". And that was just the starters. House respected nobody's privacy or feelings.

Henry had just started to wonder when House was going to join them and what torture he had in mind for the last "survivors" when House did join them. He was smiling – which Henry took as a bad sign – and he had a hat with him. A top hat. Henry was fairly sure nobody was going to like the magic trick that hat suggested. Dr Foreman was with House and he didn't look too happy either.

"And here it is, the judgement day," House gloated. "All we need to do is to sort the sheep from the goats. Or maybe I should say the Gryffindor from the Slytherin since this hat is going to help us with that task."

The candidates eyed the hat with suspicion almost bordering on loathing. They had a pretty good idea of what House was going to do and they didn't like it.

"If you are going to just make us draw lots," Jeffery (number 18) said. "I'm not sure that would be fair. We have all worked hard to get this far, something that arbitrary doesn't seem right."

"Strange you should be the one to object," House mocked. "I would have thought this sort of thing would be right up your street. After all, if God wants you to have this job, then surely he will see to it that you get the right ticket."

"I know you take great delight in mocking my beliefs," Jeffrey said with dignity. "And I also know that I really cannot do anything about it, but I would appreciate it if you could refrain from doing so. However, that consideration apart I still don't think drawing lots is fair. If God wants me to have this job then I have succeeded in earning it. And we, me and the rest of us, deserve to know what you choose."

"And I choose to go with the hat," House stated. "That tells you either that I don't really care who I have in my team or that you have all convinced me that you deserve a spot and I just cannot choose. You can choose whichever explanation you find more comforting. However, unless you decide to quit now, you will draw lots."

"Well, I cannot say that any part of this process has been exactly fair," Travis (number 37) sighed. "So I suppose drawing lots is just par for the course. I'm certainly not quitting."

The others agreed with him and they lined up in front of House to put their hands inside the top hat and find out their fate.

"Right, in the hat there are six pawns, all wrapped in black paper," House explained. "Once you get your pawn unwrap it and if it's black go to the left and if it's white go to the right."

The procedure didn't take long. In less than a minute there were two groups in the room: the black team that included number 13, number 32 (Jody the Vet) and number 37 (Travis) and the white team with number 39 (the plastic surgeon Chris), number 18 (Jeffrey the Mormon) and number 24 (Amber the ambitious "pixie").

"Right," House announced. "Black team, you're hired, go with Dr Foreman."

There was jubilation in the black team and the white team looked defeated; Henry felt sorry for them, but then House went on.

"White team, we have a patient," House slammed a file on the table.

"Patient?" Amber asked wide-eyed.

"Yes," House gloated at them. "You are also hired. Dr Cuddy has decided to expand the Department of Diagnostics and with Dr Foreman working here as well we need two teams. When I have a patient one of the teams is working with me – the white team with this patient and the black team with the next one and so on – and when I don't have a patient you will all either work with Dr Foreman or you will work in the clinic or in the department of your speciality or the ER or wherever you will be most useful. Any questions?"

"What symptoms does this patient have?" Chris asked and opened the file that House had brought with him.

Henry smiled. He was glad that House had found a way to hire all six of them – Jeffrey had been right, they had all worked hard to get here. But the way House had done it was so typical of him. He could have just come in and told them that they were all hired, but obviously that would have been just too nice: it might actually have given the fellows a wrong impression. They might actually have thought that House cared. And perish that thought. Henry felt his smile widen, yes this would be one interesting job indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

_Should have known I couldn't keep it a one-shot! Mind you at that time I didn't know they were going to torture us with an extra week. So to help me with the withdrawal symptoms, here is one more chapter. If there are still more, they will be mostly about Henry, I don't have enough of a feel for the rest of the newbies to really write about them and once we know who will stay in the show this little story will probably be AU._

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Henry couldn't help but watch number 13 as the team worked. House had said her name already, but Henry hadn't caught it. He supposed that somewhere in his mind he would always call her "13". She was a little subdued still, not so that she wasn't working to the full of her capabilities; no, if anything she was almost over-achieving. But you could see that having lost that patient still weighed on her. Henry approved. Human life ought not to be taken lightly. On the other hand, he supposed that he approved of House's approach to it, too. At least were he a patient he would – well, not if he was the patient who died, but certainly the next patient. It was a good quality in a doctor to be able to learn what one could from one's mistake and then leave it behind and give the best care to the next patient. If you got too focused on your past mistakes you were likely to make new ones.

Not that House didn't make mistakes. Trying to nearly-kill oneself was definitely a mistake, though it hadn't actually made any difference to the patient who had died while House was unconscious. Henry had asked House why he did it – after he had been hired of course; he had wanted to know if his new job was likely to disappear from under him due to the insanity of his boss. He had had no real hope of getting an answer, but apparently for some reason House had been in a giving mood.

"There are several theories about what is beyond this life we have," House had mused. "There is the theory of God, then one of No-God, there is a theory of After-life and No-After-life."

"You say those like they are all independent theories," Henry pondered. "Surely you need God to have After-life?"

"No, you don't," House shook his head. "And God doesn't guarantee an after-life either. All four combinations of those theories do exist in different religions or philosophies. But they are all theories. No scientific proof can be shown for any. So in the end you choose the one that you find most comforting."

"I heard you weren't exactly accepting the choice your patient had made between those theories," Henry reminded House.

"Yeah," House did look slightly sheepish. "I tend to get a little upset when people decide to die before I have got my diagnosis confirmed. However, that is neither here nor there in this conversation."

"Fine, so there is no proof," Henry nodded. "You don't think people seeing dead-people is proof? Nor the visions some get during near-death experiences?"

"They cannot be scientifically authenticated," House pointed out. "But I am a scientist. A good scientist does, every now and then, test his theories. I know I can be wrong; contrary to what some people believe I don't see myself as god. Empirical evidence will always trump theory. I was of the opinion that the visions one has during the process of dying are hallucinations brought on by the lack of oxygen in the brain. I definitely had had those during the two times I nearly died before. But then I got a patient who had had such a strong experience that he wanted to have it again! That did not fit my theory. He was sure it wasn't a hallucination as he said he had had those before. Yeah, it might have been unorthodox, even stupid but curiosity got the better of me."

"And did you get an answer?" Henry queried.

"Yeah," House nodded. "Nothing."

"And right after you have decided – based on empirical evidence – that there is no after-life nor God, you get a patient who sees dead people," Henry smiled.

"We found out what was wrong with her and we cured her," House pointed out.

"Did we?" Henry pondered. "Did we really cure her or did we just take away her ability to see the Dead?"

"You believe in ghosts and spirits?" House gave Henry a searching look.

"My beliefs are not relevant to my job," Henry stated. "But as you said, there is not scientific method for measuring the authenticity of her experience. Personally, though, I'm glad we were able to _cure _her, if that was what we did. I'm sure seeing dead people for the rest of her life would have, eventually, driven her crazy."

"And she wasn't now?" House lifted an amused eyebrow at Henry.

"No, she was just different," Henry smiled back. "I'm sure you can relate to that."

"I may not be quite as open-minded as you seem to think," House muttered, but he did have something of an amused gleam in his eyes.

As a result of that conversation Henry didn't feel exactly secure in his job; House was almost guaranteed to do something insane again. Of course, when he had brought that up, House had pointed out that no matter how staid, sane and boring you were, it didn't mean you couldn't walk under a bus or trip in the stairs and break your neck. At least with House Henry could be fairly sure that last scenario was not going to come true.

Henry was distracted from his by the heated argument that had suddenly erupted between Amber and Jeffrey; ethics, of course. Few other things could make Jeffrey heated enough to actually raise his voice. Not that he couldn't defend his position over other issues as well; he did have a backbone. But it was a quiet backbone. Of course, the said backbone was somewhat handicapped by his religion which insisted on respect for the elders. Something House seemed to be actively discouraging; and Henry didn't mean the elders of Jeffrey's religion, he meant House as an elder – though the Mormon elders did get their share, too House being House.

Amber of course was always ready for any conflict. Henry was actually somewhat curious about her. You weren't born to be a "cut-throat bitch"; it was definitely something you had to learn, and Amber had definitely learned. Naturally you did need some inherent qualities to be successful at it – and Amber had those in spades – but you didn't fight for every inch with tooth and claw unless experience had taught you that that was what you needed to do. And even so there still seemed to be something soft about her, too. Not much, but some hint of something _womanly_; though Henry did acknowledge that that could be just his overactive imagination not wanting to let go of the idea of women as the softer, gentler sex.

There had definitely been nothing soft about Amber's actions after 13's mistake. The very next day, when she had seen that all ten were still in the running she had demanded to know why 13 was still there even after having killed a patient.

"She came up with the correct diagnosis," House shrugged. "When I started the game I didn't specify that the patient had to actually live, just that the diagnosis was right."

There was a shocked silence but House didn't seem to care how the teams took his announcement. Even Amber blinked, but she was nothing if not tenacious.

"But she didn't follow through with it," Amber insisted. "And it cost the patient his life. You cannot reward her for the diagnosis!"

"I haven't," House pointed out. "As you can see, **you** are still here as are all the men. Had I rewarded her for the diagnosis, you would all be gone and I would be here with the women's team only."

"Shut up Cut-throat Bitch," number 6/9 hissed at her. "Before you cut all our throats."

"But if I were to award the price for yesterday's competition," House continued musingly. "And then also punish for the death, I would have my team already. And all-female team." That caused the twins and the vet to perk up. Henry decided to intervene – though he was well aware that no intervention would do any good if House wanted to end his game now.

"That wouldn't be fair either," Henry spoke up.

"You object to my having and all-female team?" House wanted to know.

"No, that is not the problem," Henry shook his head. "If those three are who you want, that is entirely up to you, but whatever you decide cannot be as a reward or punishment for yesterday. We all share the responsibility for his death. And I am not speaking metaphorically. We, everyone in this room bear some of the fault."

"I had nothing to do with it!" Amber insisted. "I did my best to find the right diagnosis."

"Shut up Cut-throat Bitch," Henry told her quite kindly actually, but firmly. "We all got caught up in the game and we lost focus on the main issue: the patient and his welfare. You spent about two hours to find a way to get into the men's team. You wasted time you should have used to figure out what was wrong with the patient, in trying to get into an advantageous position in the game. The irony in that is, that you were still doing that when the ladies team already had the right diagnosis and had things gone as they should have, the game would have been over before you even found the court."

"Well, all the more obvious that I had nothing to do with the patient's death," Amber stated.

"It's not just what we do, that affects things," Henry said. "It's also what we don't do. Had you accepted the original division, you would have been with the ladies when they made their diagnosis, and you being you, you would have done your damnest to make sure none of us Danglers got anywhere near the patient until your team had had a chance to treat him and to see that the treatment worked. As for the rest of us, we got in each other's way. We distracted each other and we all messed up. We put the game first, not the patient as we should have."

"You think Dr House should fire us all then?" Jeffrey wanted to know.

"He can't do that either," Henry observed.

"Why is that?" One of the twins asked.

"Because I am in this room, too," House pointed out.

"What do you mean?" The Vet wondered.

"I said that everyone in this room shares in the blame," Henry reminded her. "And yes, I did mean Dr House, too. He was at fault when he made it a game. He made a mistake."

"And what was my mistake?" House asked mildly.

"You don't think you made a mistake?" Travis (the doctor without borders) demanded.

"I do, but I want to know what Scooter thinks it was," House replied.

"You trusted us," Henry stated simply. "You expected us to be doctors enough to put the patient first. To make sure that, no matter how we compete, the patient wouldn't suffer. We didn't do that. You made a mistake and as a result of that a patient died. You cannot fire us, without firing yourself as well."

"Succinctly put," House acknowledged. "And a suitable ending for this boring conversation. Nobody is fired, not even you Cut-throat Bitch. Live with it."

And here she still was, to everybody's amazement. Though Henry had to admit she had some qualities House was bound to find appealing – her tenacity for one. Of course, once Dr Foreman joined the fray, it became obvious that House didn't mind ambition and cut-throat ways.

Dr Foreman was Amber in trousers, though he lacked a few House-like characteristics that Amber seemed to have. Henry wasn't that fond of Dr Foreman, though he could see quite a few good qualities in him; the man was a good doctor, too, though not as good as he thought he was. Henry rather suspected that Dr Foreman believed that he was as good as House, which he wasn't, not by a long shot. He possibly had the potential to become pretty close to _as good as House_, but never quite. Thus far, he was a watered down, candy-assed version of House. Which still made him one hell of a doctor, of course, but Henry thought it would have been better had he remained in neurology. However, here he was, and maybe now House had a chance to finish training him and this time, when Dr Foreman decided to fly solo, he actually might be ready for it.

All in all, Henry could see interesting time ahead. But right now, he better concentrate on the symptoms on the white-board. House did expect him to contribute even if he didn't expect Henry to come up with the right diagnosis. But then he didn't expect it of his fellows either, so in that sense Henry was just like them. Which suited him just fine.


End file.
